This popular genre of music was born in the late 1940s and early 1950s in the United States. It evolved from other genres: gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie-woogie, country music, and R’n’B. Even though the evolution of this genre started in the 1940s, the name wasn’t given to it until 1954.

In the earliest styles of this genre, a piano and saxophone were typically used as the leading instruments. It wasn’t until the mid 1950s that these instruments were replaced with a guitar. Another instrument used in this genre a snare drum. This drum gives a dance rhythm and an accentuated back-beat, which is characteristic for Rock ‘N’ Roll music. Later on, Rock ‘N’ Roll music started using one or two electric guitars, a double or string bass guitar, an electric bass guitar, and a drum set.

Rock ‘N’ Roll was not only a musical style, but it also influenced almost every aspect of people’s lives. Fashion styles, hair and makeup, and even the ways of behaving and talking were affected by it. One of the biggest contributions of this music was the one it had to the civil rights movement, considering that both African-American and Caucasian people listened to it.

The popularity of Rock ‘N’ Roll, however, started declining in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Popular Rock ‘N’ Roll sounds were then muffled by a more smooth, commercial style of rock and roll. Marketing of the music was more concentrated on the physical looks of the artist, rather than their music.